Congratulations to cleen, who correctly identified Items 5 and 6 from the What In Polynesian Pop guessing game. That leaves just two items left. The answers to Items 5 & 6 are revealed after the jump:

Kamaka Ukulele

Item 5

Cleen pegged Item 5 when she guessed it was my Kamaka ukulele. This is one of my more lovely, and beloved, possessions. I purchased it in winter 2004 from McCabe’s in Santa Monica. It’s a soprano uke, made of lustrous koa wood. Sometimes, when I’m supposed to be practicing, I find myself just looking at the fine craftsmanship and gorgeous grain. It seems a shame that my playing makes something so pretty sound so ugly. Every now and then I’m able to hand it over to someone who knows what they’re doing, and it sounds so rich, so beautiful. So, I keep practicing.

Shasta Tiki Punch

Item 6

Cleen also correctly identified Item 6, Shasta Tiki Punch. Waaaaay back in early 2002, when Tiki Central was still on Yahoo! Groups, it was noticed that Shasta soda had an online poll to vote for your favorite flavor — and Tiki Punch was among the options. Everyone started voting for Tiki Punch, not because it was tasty (most people hadn’t ever tried it), but because it was tiki, dammit. These days, tiki products can be seen in mainstream outlets all over the place, but back then it was more novel. Shortly after the discovery of the poll, Tiki Central moved over to its own setup where it still lives today, and the voting effort can bee seen in one of the earliest threads on TC’s current site. The campaign grew, and in a short time Tiki Punch had an astronomical lead over the other flavors.

It being just a goofy little online poll — and a poorly constructed one at that, given how easily folks were able to stuff the ballot box — TCers’ attentions turned to other things, and life marched along merrily. Then, one day, the Tiki Punch can came out with a new graphic on it — “World’s Greatest Flavor!” Oh, dear. Oh, my. Suddenly the little jape had a real-world consequence, the prank had turned from something that existed only on the internet into something solid that could be held in our hands. And a bit later still — TCers started to spot billboards for Tiki Punch, and Shasta started selling variations on Tiki Punch, including Tiki Mist, Tiki Orange Mango, and Tiki Blue. I would hope that they made their advertising and product development decisions based on actual sales data, rather than the results of a poll that had been monkeyed around with by a bunch of people who’d never even drunk their pop.

So now, Shasta Tiki Punch has a big place in Tiki Central history, and many of us have a few cans of the stuff laying around. I still don’t think I’ve ever tasted it — I imagine it’s probably like Hawaiian Punch, but I have no idea.

Okay, that leaves just two items to be guessed — take your best shot! The pictures have been zoomed out a bit, so they are a bit easier now.